2.9% house price rise during 2009
Stats are beginning to emerge that show the aggregate picture of house prices during 2009, and they are not quite as bad as was once feared but also not as strong as some had predicted.
In total, house prices in the UK rose by 2.9% last year according to the latest government house price survey. The survey, conducted under the auspices of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), shows that the average UK home cost £200,307 at the end of December.
The DCLG figures show that prices have now gone up for eight months in a row after falls during the worst of the credit crunch recession.
The report also breaks down the price changes by region which makes for an interesting analysis. Although prices rose by 3% in England, 3.8% in Scotland and 1% in Wales, they actually fell by 6% in Northern Ireland.
Unsurprisingly, prices rose fastest in London where they went up by 4.9% during the year.
Although the figures show that health is returning to the UK housing market, the figures are in contrast to projected figures from some mortgage lenders. The Nationwide and the Halifax produced figures suggesting that UK house prices rose by nearly 6% last year.
These figures now appear to have failed to take into account the tough few months at the beginning of 2009 when the housing market was still feeling the effect of massively reduced mortgage lending and house prices were consequently falling.
The growth in house prices after the early months of 2009 was a result of greater affordability after the price falls and much reduced mortgage interest rates.
The signs that the availability of mortgages is continuing to increase, while at the same time interest rates remain low, mean that analysts expect the growth in UK house prices to continue and increase, barring any external jolts to the market such as the ‘double-dip’ recession.
